Excerpt from On the Plains: Selections From the Youth's Companion

The hull or foundation of the prairie schooner is a double box about twelve and one-half feet long. This box is usually three and a half feet wide, though many pioneers extend the upper box a foot on each side and support it by, iron braces. A wagon sheet stretched over four or five good elm bows covers the box, which does not, however, comprise the whole carrying capacity of'the schooner.

Secured behind the box will be seen a large packing-case, with front, rear or sides of slats or woven wire. This coop is the home for the long journey of perhaps a dozen hens, the nucleus for a flock at the new home.

Biddy is worth, even during the journey, a good deal more than the small trouble of carrying her. She supplies the family with fresh eggs every day, for the fatigues of the voyage do not turn her from the regularity of her habits, nor seem to upset her nervous system.

The door of the coop is opened when the schooner stops for the evening camp; out fly the hens, and then how the dust flies! Such a fluttering, scratching and cackling! Such running after grasshoppers and. Other insects But the sinking sun soon warns them that it is time for all good fowls to go to roost; they fly up to the box as naturally as if they had never slept elsewhere; the door is closed and they are ready for another day's drive.

On top of the hen-coop are piled chairs, stovepipes and other light, bulky articles; boxes are fastened outside the wagon, at every convenient place to carry tools, cooking utensils and other articles. On one side, held in position by iron rods, may be a keg holding five or ten gallons of water, a prime necessity, that must be carried over many miles of the American desert.

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